Hi everyone, I come from a long line of chewers and have gotten my wife hooked on it as well. We currently buy Sonic ice and make room in the outdoor freezer for it by throwing away food. Haha. The nearest Sonic is 15-20 miles away and the summer heat is making my ice melt more than it should on the way home. When we then freeze it, half of the bag becomes a solid block of ice and unusable. I was considering keeping a cooler in my trunk but I'd like to buy 6-8 bags at a time so I would have to keep 2 coolers in my trunk at all times which is not practical because I also golf a lot. I was wondering if anyone else has crossed this bridge and could offer some advice so I'm not throwing out half of my ice? Collapsable cooler, or better yet an insulated blanket that I could wrap it in for the trip? Any other solutions to a portable cool environment?

Glad there are so many of us out there. I've been reading this site from time to time for a while.

Buy your own Scotsman Pellet ice maker. They are very expensive but the if you consider the amount of time and money that you are using just to get the ice (then transporting and storing.) It might be an opption worth looking into. Plus, that would be so cool to have it on hand whenever you want! Fresh, no melting, and no hard re-freezing.

Or you can learn to make ice like it at home; as I have. This may not be right for you because you and your wife are chewers and it's not easy to make in large batches but the recipe is called 'sonic like ice' on the recipes section.

Until you find another way you might just have to get coolers and start getting ice once a week. Get as much was you can fit in the coolers. Then you could use cold salt water on the way home to keep the bags from melting than refreezing once you get them into your freezer. Salt water can be colder than frozen ice, so using regular (none sonic) ice plus really cold salt water in your coolers on the way home should help. Less trips more usable ice and you would only need the coolers in your car for the trip. Also, check the defrosts on your freezer that might be making the ice melt too much.